BRITISH COLUMBIA

Canadian Forces Station Leitrim – Detachment Massett:

Originally opened as a Royal Canadian Navy radio intercept station, Naval Wireless Station Massett (old spelling) on 23 February 1943. Situated at the top of the Queen Charlotte Islands, the station proved to be an ideal location for shop-to-shore communications.

Also during 1943, the RCAF’s No. 9 Construction Maintenance Unit arrived and constructed an airfield and several buildings. The station even had a detachment of Cano Code trained Special Operators posted to the site in 1944.

The end World War II saw the closure of many military bases and Naval Wireless Station Massett was no exception, closing in the fall of 1945. The site remained in RCN hands on a care and maintenance basis.

Naval Radio Station Masset resumed operations in 1949 as a High Frequency Direction Finding and Signal Intelligence station, a tender to NRS  Gloucester, as were Inuvik, Gander, Frobisher Bay, Aklavik, Bermuda and Chimo. Gloucester provided all the administrative functions, pay for the station.

The Delkatla site was re-activated as the main operations centre, another operations centre and the accommodations block were situated at the “old site” in Masset and the transmitter/receiver site was in Haida Village.

By the mid 1950s, married quarters had been constructed at the Masset site.

As a result of the Unification, NRS Masset was re-named CFS Masset and the station became part of the Canadian Forces Supplementary Radio System.

Military communications stations across the country were consolidated, with several stations closing and those that remained taking over bigger areas of responsibility.

With the impending consolidation, it became apparent that Massett needed new facilities, so in 1966 plans were made for new buildings and upgraded communications equipment.

In 1970, operations were centralized at the Masset site and the Delkatla and Haida sites closed.  Land was cleared and the station received a complete upgrade in its facilities, including new married quarters, a new operations site, an antenna system, new barracks, mess and recreation facilities.

A unique feature of the new buildings was that the domestic site was integrated into the Town of Massett itself, unusual for a military base.

In 1971, Masset assumed control of the area of responsibility covered by CFS Lander, which was one of the stations slated for closure.  It was around this time period, the station complement rose from 50 persons to 240 military and 60 civilian workers.

The United States Navy Security Group also had a small contingent of personnel posted to Masset in 1971.

Department of National Defence cutbacks resulted in the station being downsized to remote operation on 4 April 1997. The station was re-designated CFS Leitrim Detachment Masset and only 10 military personnel remain for technical support, drawing support from 19 Wing Comox.

Most of the buildings at the former station have been sold to the Village of Masset, except for a few of the PMQs & the gym. A top floor was added to the Golf Clubhouse and that is the all ranks mess

All that remains of the “old Massett site” is a deserted roadway.

Source material: DND press release from February 1994, CFS Masset site – http://www.island.net/~labrador/cfsm.htm, CFS Masset site – http://www.jproc.ca/rrp/masset.html, Sentinel magazine, January 1970 & information and personal recollections of Petty Officer 1st Class Kevin Lamorie (2004).

19 Wing Comox:

Located on Vancouver Island, the station opened in 1942 as RCAF Station Comox.  The station trained crews to fly transport aircraft such as the Douglas Dakota, along with providing surveillance patrols of the west coast against Japanese attacks.

The station closed in 1946, but was re-activated in 1952 due to rising threats from the Korean War and the Cold War. Along with coastal patrols, Comox also served as a station in the newly established Pinetree Line, a radar early-warning system across Canada.

51 AC&W Squadron opened in November 1954, originally just outside the north boundary of RCAF Station Comox.  As the radar station was close to two other Pinetree stations at Tofino and Holberg, it had a very brief life as advances in radar technology made it redundant less than 4 years later.

As a result, 51 AC&W Squadron ceased operations in June 1958, but the facilities did continue to be used by the Comox Air Traffic Control as a Radar Approach Control (RAPCON) facility on the station.

Today, the station provides coastal patrols, search & rescue and training functions.   Coastal surveillance along the pacific coast, western and Arctic regions is done by 407 Long Range Patrol Squadron using Aurora aircraft.  Search and rescue patrols are conducted using Buffalo aircraft and the new Cormorant helicopters, flown by 442 Transport and Rescue Squadron.

Tactical fighter training is also conducted at nearby ranges and the station is also home to the Canadian Forces School of Search and Rescue, where Search And Rescue Technicians or “SAR Techs”, undergo training.

The airfield is also shared with a civilian terminal for commercial flights.

Opened in 1939 as a militia training camp, Camp Nanaimo was also used as a Combined Operations base for the training of army and naval groups until 1943.

The Camp closed in 1946 and many of the buildings were sold for civilian use.  The former military hospital became a hospital for the Department of Indian Affairs.

The camp was later re-acquired by the Canadian Army, who re-opened it as the home of the 5th Field Artillery, “B” Company of the Canadian Scottish Regiment, and 748 Communications Troop.

By the late 1950s, the threat of a nuclear war had become so great that the Canadian government decided to construct a secret underground bunker to house the major elements of the government in the event of an emergency. Most Provincial Governments followed suit by building their own bunkers. The British Columbia Government chose Camp Nanaimo for the site of their bunker. A smaller transmitter bunker was built at Nanoose Bay.

By 1970, Camp Nanaimo began downsizing. Approximately half of the camp was sold and by 1973, the vacated portion of the camp had been taken over by Malaspina University College, now called Vancouver Island University.

Today, Camp Nanaimo is a Detachment of CFB Esquimalt. Most of the WWII era buildings have been demolished. One of the few remaining buildings is an old H-hut that sits on the university property, used by the Vancouver Island Division of the Navy League of Canada.

A small section of former camp serves as the home of 740 Communication Squadron and 748 (Nanaimo) Communication Squadron (Reserve), both housed since 1988 in a building named after RCMP Constable Scott Gordon Berry who was killed in 1986, and The Canadian Scottish Regiment (Princess Mary’s), housed in a new armoury opened in late 2004. The remainder of this section of the property contains only overgrown roads and a running track for the old camp gym.

The camp’s firing range also remains operational, but the bunker was demolished in 1999.  The CBC radio equipment from the bunker is now at the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa.

Source Material: Vancouver Island University web site – www.viu.ca, www/discover/muchist/chpt3.htm, information supplied by Jerry Berry, resident of Nanaimo (2005), “Underground Structure of the Cold War” by Paul Ozorak & the Heritage BC web stie – http://www.heritagebc.ca/heritage_bc04.htm.

Camp Vernon Army Cadet Summer Training Centre:

(No. 110 Canadian Army (Basic) Training Centre)

Originally opened in 1909 as a militia training camp for units of the Okanogan Valley. During World War I, the camp was a very busy place for the training of units of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. After the war, the camp returned to being a militia training camp.

In 1940, the Camp was once again taken over by the Regular Force and became the home of No. 110 Canadian Army (Basic) Training Centre and the Canadian Battle Drill School for the duration of the war. After serving as a demobilization centre for returning soldiers, the camp closed in 1947.

The camp re-opened in 1949 as a summer training centre for the Royal Canadian Army Cadets and remains so to this day, with Royal Canadian Air Cadets and Royal Canadian Navy Sea Cadets also attending Vernon for summer training camps.

Most of the World War II era buildings, including the once ubiquitous H-Hut barracks that once sprawled across army camps in Canada.  Only a small number of the WWII-era H-Huts remain across Canada today, in comparison to the hundreds that once housed soldiers training at Canadian Army camps.  While some have been renovated and are still in use today, both at active bases and by private owners, most have been demolished or allowed to fall apart.  Camp Vernon has the largest and best preserved collection of H-huts still standing in Canada.

While Camp Vernon is now a cadet training centre, the professional soldiers have not completely abandoned their former turf as both Regular and Reserve Force Army units utilize the training area on a year round basis.  As well, the British Columbia Dragoons reserve regiment have an armoury at the camp.

The Vernon camp is now the oldest continuous serving army cadet training centre in Canada having outlived the cadet camps at Ipperwash, which closed in 1994, and Banff, which closed in 1999.

Historian Francois Arseneault describes the Vernon Army Cadet Summer Training Centre as “…perhaps the best preserved example of a WWII H-hut camp in left Canada, if not the largest. The buildings are remarkable well preserved given the mild winters and dry, relatively bug-free summers”.

Source Material: information provided by Francois Arseneault, Historian (2003), Vernon Army Cadet Summer Training Centre web sitehttp://www.armycadethistory.com/vernon_acstc_main.htm & The Canadian Army WWII Training Establishments web site – www.canadiansoldiers.com/wwiitrain.htm.

Camp Albert Head:

Originally established as an artillery coastal battery from 1938-1946 in the village of Metchosin.

The camp, on Albert Head Road, now serves as a summer training camp for the Albert Head Air Cadet Summer Training Centre, as well as the British Columbia Canadian Ranger Company of the 4th Canadian Ranger Patrol Group and CFB Esquimalt Range Control.  In the past, naval reservists also used the camp for summer training.

Several of the WWII era buildings remain, along with new buildings and portables.

Source Material: information supplied by Debbie Towell, Curator, CFB Esquimalt Naval & Military Museum and the personal recollections of the author (1988).